Isn't it funny how you can't update Android version without a risk to brick your phone? Eventually many apps will just stop supporting older Android version and won't work unless updated. It's like they looked at PC and Windows with people still using ancient versions for decades and thought "no no! we can't have that! we need to rig this thing from the start!".
That's why I refuse buying new smartphones and just use an emulator instead if I'm really pressed. I still use Nokia phone from 2012, and of course sometimes you run into a problem when you need some kind of app or QR code scan when you're outside, and people looking at you funny when you tell them you don't have a phone, but it's manageable.
To be fair, you can update applications (or force them to stay as is) on an Android device easier than an iOS device, for certain applications.
I used a Kit Kat device until the certificates expired (2013 MotoG) because application vendors were still updating the browser and other items.
iOS, everything is tied to the built in rendering engine, so after a few years of no OS support the device becomes useless. I have a device with iOS 12 on it, it's only a few generations out, and the browser is worthless. Application vendors no longer update things, so pretty much any web-connected widget isn't going to work for very long.
The android studio sdk still has a large target surface, and happily tells you how much market share you will miss out on by raising the minimum target level. The recommended minimum target is Android 4.1. It also still supports legacy (non androidx) libraries, which can lower the minimum target to Android 2.3. Google is doing it's hardest to force developers to conform to their shit by nuking old documentation on not androidx.
Going full native is still possible at least, and if you target opengles, you can absolutely get away from all Google development and completely step away from the framework. Obviously stepping away from the framework means more knowledge and time needed to get something off the ground.
4.1 is great except I wasn't able to install new certificates on my device, which made anything secure difficult to use.
The only applications I ever developed were simply wrappers for websites. Not really much development going on there.
I figure that pretty soon, someone is going to set up intermediate services so you can connect to a server that translates the newest API from the service into an older API that most devices support.
It's not really an API issue, it's how iOS vs Android talks to the web. All web-enabled apps are going to stop working when the vendor stops updating, but I could at least use my MotoG's browser right up until the certs expired. The rendering ending in iOS is so old that it's starting to choke on websites.
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